Potawatomi buy Michigan-based mold maker Accu-Mold

PORTAGE, MICH. (Updated Jan. 11, 1:20 p.m. ET) — Mold maker Accu-Mold Inc. has been acquired by the economic development group of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi.

Mno-Bmadsen plans to invest in new technology and add employees at Accu-Mold, based in Portage, Mich.

The business will continue at the same location under the new name Accu-Mold LLC. Former owner Dave Martin will remain president. Martin said he is putting together three long-range plans that Mno-Bmadsen can look at when shaping long-term investments.

“There’s been no difference in terms of future planning,” he said. “If anything, it has escalated, in that we have a bigger pool of financing available so we may be able to pull [hiring] forward and do it a little earlier.”

Accu-Mold has been in business for 36 years. It builds injection mold tooling for everything from micromolds to molds for 500-ton presses, with a specialty in products being converted from metal to plastics.

“We’ve got a very successful niche and everybody is trying to take weight out of everything, from automotive to aerospace,” Martin said.

Martin said he had been studying the best succession plans for his business. He is 56 and looking for options that would allow him to phase out his role in the company during the next 10 years. He also wanted to ensure that Accu-Mold and its employees would have a stable and secure future.

Mno-Bmadsen was looking for its first industrial company and a long-term investment. It also wanted a company that was established, not one requiring new management or turnaround expertise.

Mno-Bmadsen, based in Dowagiac, Mich., was created to conduct investments in non-gaming businesses for the Potawatomi tribe. Its name translates from Potawatomi as “living the good and prudent path.”